


Honor the Past

by hufflepuffkitten93



Category: The Lion King (1994)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-03 00:22:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12737274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hufflepuffkitten93/pseuds/hufflepuffkitten93
Summary: A follow-up (and gift) to Julius Skywalker's "The Hyena Rebellion".





	Honor the Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Prince Kiba (Emo_Huckleberry)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emo_Huckleberry/gifts).



> I read Julius Skywalker's "The Hyena Rebellion" and was inspired to write a sort of follow-up. As this is a gift fic, if the author whose work this is based on doesn't like it, I will be more than glad to remove it from the site.

The starving lionesses who had made the journey into the jungle steadily filled out once again. The pack of hyenas moved beyond the elephant graveyard and into a desert where they too were reinvigorated. The hyenas and lions had barely left before a blazing fire swept across the withered plain, destroying what was left of their home and leaving barely anything in its wake.

Nature took its course, as it always will. Years passed and rain came again to their beloved land, nourishing the grass and the trees and giving new life to the dry, cracked riverbeds.

Hardier birds and rodents returned first, digging nests for themselves in the soil or in burned-out trees.  They feasted on nuts and seeds. Herds slowly made their way back, picking carefully at the tiny grass shoots and new leaves on the trees. Water bubbled forth from the springs again. Zebras, gazelles, elephants, and even rhinoceros cautiously began to settle their families in the land they had once called home. Predators had disappeared, creating a safe haven for them once again. Populations began to expand.

\----------

The pride’s joy at discovering their lost heir in the jungle was overwhelming. Sarabi’s eyes grew wide as she took in his glossy pelt and shaggy mane, something she had resigned herself to never witnessing when Scar had first related the lies of his nephew’s death. Shenzi had told her the truth of Mufasa’s death and Simba’s escape, but she had still been unable to let go of the doubt that plagued her. He had been only a cub, alone in the desert. The dry earth held slim chances of survival for anyone, let alone her nearly-defenseless offspring, and yet here he was. He had taken on a carefree attitude and learned to survive in the jungle by feasting on insects.

Simba seemed glad to see them and asked few questions about their arrival; Sarabi surmised that he was still dealing with the demons of Mufasa’s death.

“What happened to your father is not your fault,” she stressed. “It was the easiest way for Scar to claim power.”

“Good,” said Simba bitterly. “He wants it more than me, he can have it.”

Sarabi was aghast. “Have you not been listening to what I’ve told you? Scar’s rule was tyranny. No one could live under that. Nothing could exist as it did under Mufasa.”

Simba’s eyes burned. “He told me I wasn’t needed. That I should leave everything.”

Her heart broke for him all over again. “If I had one wish,” she said, “it’s that none of this had ever happened. But it did, and we all know now what should have happened instead. What needs to happen now.”

\----------

Shenzi led her clan into a desert north of the Pride Lands, following vultures to find prey that had dropped dead of exhaustion and dehydration. Their population had grown so massive thanks to Scar’s outreach that dissent was common and, rather than allow open mutiny, Shenzi conceded to splinter groups moving off on their own. Anyone who thought they knew better than she did weren’t worth her time.

“If they think they can find something better, they’re welcome to it. They better just hope I don’t find them in the end and rip their ears off,” she said, watching yet another cluster of her fellows fade into the distance.

Beyond the desert lay a new grassland, where springbok and wildebeest thrived. The clan were thrilled to finally have found a reliable source of food, and it was only through iron jaws that Shenzi could hold their newfound bloodlust in check. She too understood the urge to eat everything in sight; she salivated just gazing out at the herds of well-fed prey animals.

\----------

With Nala and his mother for support, Simba had gradually begun to grow into his role as leader of the pride. Sarabi beamed as she watched her son. The jungle had been the stress-free environment he’d needed after such a traumatic experience, and she knew the guilt would never fully leave him, as it would never leave her. The fact that she had not been at her mate’s side in his final hour felt imprinted in her bones and threatened to eat her alive. But she knew Mufasa continued to watch over them all, no matter where they decided to call home. One day, she finally called the pride together.

“Time has passed,” she said. “Quite a bit of it. I have been ever grateful for this beautiful place, but I fear that if we do not return soon I will never see my home again.” Her pridemates nodded with understanding, and Sarafina licked her ear reassuringly.

Nala purred as she tended to the infant cub who had been born mere weeks ago. “I would like nothing more than for our daughter to be raised in our true home,” she agreed. Simba shifted uncomfortably. Years later, he was still torn between wanting to return to his childhood home and remain in the safety of the jungle, where old ghosts could not haunt him. But the other lionesses nodded and made their own sounds of assent, and his demons were overruled. Simba slunk away through the bushes to find the two compatriots who had been with him since the early days.

“We’re leaving,” he announced, still feeling stunned by his mother’s decision. He couldn’t understand what would make the pride want to go back to a place that held so many awful memories for all of them. Nala and his mother had both related horrendous accounts of abuse by Scar and the hyenas, and the deathly vision of a barren landscape which had once been full of life had added a new depth to his own nightmares.

Timon and Pumbaa were by turns ecstatic and apprehensive. “I remember that place,” Timon mused. “Too much overpopulation.”

“Aw, Timon,” Pumbaa protested, “it’s been a long time. And it sounds like a lot’s happened since we’ve been gone.” He glanced at Simba, who refused to meet his eyes. “Let’s give it a try. If we don’t like it, we can always come back.”

Simba was surprised by this suggestion; it hadn’t occurred to him that he could just leave again. A knot formed in his belly as he thought of what his mother would think if he abandoned his duties now that he was supposed to be in charge of the pride. But Sarabi had led their family through so much, and he knew he owed it to her at least to try.

\----------

Cries of delight rang out as the lions gathered on a rocky outcrop overlooking their home. Giraffes could be seen feeding from trees that had grown tall and strong in their absence. Antelope pranced through the grass. A baby hippopotamus and its parents rolled in a pool that extended downriver of the main watering hole. Sarabi glanced sidelong at her son. He stood, drinking it all in with his eyes, and she saw innumerable emotions pass over his face.

She found herself wondering where Shenzi and the hyena clan had gone. Sarabi had no doubt that the hyena matriarch had survived; she had always displayed a fierce tenacity for life. They had parted on respectful, albeit rather uneasy terms, and a part of her couldn’t help but wonder if the pack had rejoined Scar in exile. As she stood gazing at the magnificence of Pride Rock in the dusky twilight, an unbidden shudder ripped through her. Who was to say Scar and the hyenas would not return, and the cycle would not begin once again?

\----------

From her position atop an ancient elephant skull across the plain, Shenzi’s sharp eyes quickly spied the pride of lionesses. She hissed, eyes narrowing as she spotted the lone male figure among them.

“So the lost prince has come back from the dead,” she observed. “Shame.”

She slid down a rotting tusk and landed in the dust, nearly on top of Banzai. “The pride’s back,” she said. He cocked an eyebrow.

“About time, I guess,” he said. “We knew it wouldn’t last forever, us being the main predators around here. It’s always too good to be true.”

“Just so long as they keep to their own and don’t try to drive us out,” Shenzi added. “I’m not here for any of their ‘we’re big and bad and back and you need to get out’ crap.”

After their sojourn in the desert, her clan had made the unanimous decision to return to the Pride Lands. She had warned them about reverting to their old scavenging lifestyle, lurking among the bones and carcasses left to rot in the shadows, but they had all agreed in the end that the Pride Lands were where they felt they belonged. They would rule the northern land, and refused to only nose about for scraps; instead, they would take charge and hunt as the lions did. Shenzi still remembered Scar’s stipulation that “hunting was the lionesses’ job”. It made her nose wrinkle in disgust. Her clan were not the sort to be pigeonholed, especially by some arrogant, dusty lion who thought he knew what was best for the world.

But that had been a long time ago. She wondered briefly how Sarabi had explained the circumstances of them all leaving to her rediscovered son. “Only time will tell.”

\----------

The lions quickly settled back into their old lives at Pride Rock. Simba remained nervous, but decreed that things ought to go back to the way he remembered them as a cub: hunting parties would roam the plains every few days, picking off any old or ill prey animals, and if those weren’t readily available, then the young. He didn’t like the idea of killing any young creatures if he could help it, but sometimes it had to be done.

Sarabi slipped away one evening while everyone else was dozing in preparation for a night hunt. She had sensed the hyenas’ presence upon their return, although she had to commend Shenzi: she had seen neither hide nor hair of them at all. Simple female intuition told her that they too had returned to the Pride Lands, and she knew that if they were to keep a peace between their families, contact would have to be made once again. She stole through the tall grass to the northern border, flattening her ears when she caught the scent markings of the clan. They had expanded since returning to the area. Instinctive anger bubbled in Sarabi’s chest and she growled.

“I was wonderin’ when we’d see you again,” Shenzi drawled, stepping out of the grass to meet her. Sarabi pulled up sharply, the growl dying in her throat. She fought to remember the truce they had made instead of the decades of antagonizing each other. Concessions and compromises needed to be made if things were going to work.

“Shenzi,” Sarabi said, acknowledging her with a nod. “Does our pact still hold?”

The mistress of the hyenas scratched an ear. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t, unless you’re comin’ to tell me we should’ve stayed away while you took the whole place back.” She bared her teeth. Whether it was a grin or a challenge, Sarabi couldn’t tell.

“I confess, I was half-afraid he would be with you,” the lioness said, her tail flicking this way and that.

The hyena’s eyes narrowed to slits. “After how he treated us? We don’t forget easily -- and we rarely forgive.”

Sarabi smiled. “Then we are alike.”

“Mother! Get back!” Simba leaped forward with a snarl, and Sarabi froze. More hyenas erupted from the grass. Of course Shenzi wouldn’t have come alone. Steeling herself, Sarabi took a deep breath and crossed to face her son, shoulder to shoulder with the female hyena.

The young lion’s eyes widened in shock even as he continued to growl.

“Simba, listen to me.” She was determined to remain calm for as long as she could. The importance of the pact could not be overstated and it must remain intact if they were all going to coexist once again in this place. “I didn’t tell you this in the jungle because I didn’t see a point in bringing back memories I knew you were still battling with, but I should have said something before now.”

“How dare you stand there with them,” he spat. “How dare you side with his accomplices.”

 _Scar._ He continued to loom over them all, so many years later.

“His accomplices turned enemies,” Sarabi insisted. “Enemies without whom we never would have been able to chase him out.”

That gave Simba pause. “What?”

“We formed an alliance and forced Scar out,” she said. “Together.”

Simba frowned. “So he’s gone… but he’s not dead? He’s still out there?”

Shenzi cackled viciously. “He’s more than dead. We ran across him in the northern desert, baking in the sun. There was nothing left after we were through but full bellies.”

Sarabi’s jaw muscles twitched. “Then all that remains is for us to work out our differences.”

Shenzi shook her head. “Listen, we’re not about to get all buddy-buddy with lions. All we want is for the pact to hold, and to be left to our own devices. We don’t want anyone reneging and chasing us out.” She turned her eyes on the king as she said this.

Sarabi looked from the hyena to her son. “Simba?”

He glared at the assembled hyenas. “If everyone is willing to stand by the agreement that was made, then I will uphold it as well. I have no wish to see it broken. Scar is dead. May our violent pasts die with him.”

Satisfied, the hyenas disappeared into the grass. Simba stood watching for a long moment before reluctantly turning back toward Pride Rock. Sarabi and Shenzi faced each other in the dark.

“How do I know he won’t chase us out?” Shenzi asked, her teeth glinting in the moonlight. “He obviously hasn’t let go of the hell he went through as a cub.”

Sarabi nodded. “As I haven’t let go of you instigating a stampede that ultimately resulted in my mate’s death. As you haven’t let go of the way Scar treated your clan. We all hold onto things. I will guide him.”

Shenzi cocked her head. “Or… ya know… you could just keep running things yourself.”

A smile crept across Sarabi’s face.  “I’m afraid my time is passing. He is my son, and this is his place. He has been learning, and I will continue to advise him for as long as I can.”

The hyena snorted. “Better you than that dodo stooge.”

Sarabi laughed outright. “I will always remember how we came together against a common enemy, and I will ensure that he does not forget it.”

Shenzi nodded. “Good. Like I said, we don’t forget easily."


End file.
